Recent content by jwitt

A bentonite slurry has helped clear mine.

After a few months of using this mill, I'm happy to report mash efficiency somewhere between 75%-80% with batch sparging 5 gallon batches in a 10 gallon round cooler. (The 80% that my only-kinda-dialed-in Beersmith spits out seems high to me even after a few runs with consistent hydrometer and...

Dots are a good idea. I just use a sharpie on the cap and a 2-3 letter designation plus a number indicating the recipe version. For wine I have a label with some designs I drew and cleaned up in photoshop...9 on a page, through a paper cutter, and glue-sticked onto bottles. Not everything...

This is excellent stuff! I read a bit of this one: http://books.google.com/books/about/A_Treatise_on_Brewing.html?id=u1FHAAAAYAAJ It was really cool. The author made excellent notes on each brew day- what time they fired up the tun, ambient temps, etc. Here's a bit of an excerpt: Notes...

Oh, how sweet it is! I don't know where the boss man ordered it from- he placed the order during the holidays and there wasn't a heck of a lot of time for discussion in the retail madness. But now this beast is in place, happily chewing through mountains of grain. The hopper holds well...

If someone in a shop copped an attitude like that, I'd run like hell. Some folks need to cool their jets and lose the attitude. I think a lot of people (me too?) over-complicate AG brewing because they're people who really like tinkering...endless tinkering. Some people just want to make...

The new milling station at Happy Hop Homebrew (formerly Dave's) in Belleville IL. This thing chews through a 14 pound batch of grain in one minute and yields a nice crush.

General brew stuff.

I think the best route is a round drink cooler mash tun. Pretty inexpensive and highly effective IMO. I'm sure other people with more experience (and more experience on different equipment) have other views, but a cooler is just plain easy. And if you'd desire a direct fired mash tun in the...

I just read the discussion of 3-2-1, and although I'm sure it works, I don't see a need to do all that extra wrapping etc. As far as other methods, I will say that 1) I think some of the best smoked meat does come from lump charcoal, but 2) I love the set-n-forget ease of a gas smoker. Simply...

Smoked tenderloin with bacon blanket!

Things that go good with beer!

1) Chicken quarters. Very cheap and pretty easy, and all dark meat which is easier to get perfect than white. The skin will end up rubbery, but what I usually do is smoke 8 of 'em, well seasoned with rub, toss the finished product in a pan, get some gloves on, and pull the chicken. The...

Yeah, you're fine! If your temperature is at least 65º fermentation should start in a day or so. Don't worry about the water in the airlock- you'll see pressure build up as fermentation starts.

Did you boil the yeast? If so, you killed it. Also, you will get better responses here if you make your posts a bit easier to read. Many people here make lots of apple wine a.k.a. Apfelwein, which is similar to your project in that we use store-bought juice, additives, and yeast. It's...